A Queens family was left devastated after having to put down their beloved 9-year-old cat “Cheese” when he returned home Monday with a crossbow arrow in his chest.
The family heard the orange tabby meowing to come inside their Little Neck home around 3 p.m. after he took a stroll around the neighborhood — something he often did — and immediately could tell something was wrong.
“He’s a pretty vocal cat… but he was just meowing like something was off,” Michael Del Giudice, 27, told The Post. “My younger brother found him with the bolt in him — someone shot him with a mini crossbow.”
Cheese, whose full name was “Cheese balls,” was shot with the bolt square in the chest, between his front legs, Del Giudice said.
“We took him to the vet and he was too far gone,” he added. “There was nothing we could do so he had to be put down.”
He said the vet believed the bow had clipped an artery and that the indoor-outdoor cat was bleeding out internally.
9-year-old Cheese had to be put down after he suffered internal bleeding. debbie.lynchdelgiudice/Facebook
Del Giudice said he and his family were shattered by the attack against poor Cheese — and also angered.
“He was a great cat, you could do whatever you wanted [without him minding],” he said. “You could wear him like a scarf. He was really cool with being picked up for a cat.”
Del Giudice believes whoever shot his cat did so intentionally and that it may not be the animal abuser’s first time using the feline for target practice.
About six months ago, he found what he believes to have been the plastic tail-end of a bolt or dart stuck to Cheese’s fur, he said.
“It’s not a kid that got a crossbow for Christmas. At least in the last six months, someone’s been hunting cats — racoons even maybe,” Del Giudice alleged.
Del Giudice said he believes someone in the neighborhood is intentionally hurting animals.
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